


All the Right Moments

by Penny_Quill



Category: Holby City
Genre: Angst, But with a happy ending, Hurt/Comfort, It's mainly a lot of blood, M/M, and has nothing to do with Isaac, brief mentions of domestic violence, the violence isn't too grahpic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 13:38:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12706095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penny_Quill/pseuds/Penny_Quill
Summary: Both Lofty and Dom miss each other and want to start over, but will a tragic accident stand in their way? Or will it be just the thing they need to get them to confess their feelings?





	All the Right Moments

The rapid swish click of the ward doors gave the same monotonous greeting they gave every morning, it was a comforting sound, the calm before the eclectic storm of AAU. Ms Campbell gave a warm, “Morning”, before rushing for the ringing phone to his left. Lofty had barely had time to check his first patients notes before he was being called over to the nurses station.

The warm look that Lofty’d been greeted with looked as if it’d been long replaced by one of exhaustion, “I’ve just had a call from the E.D”, she said, “Their flooded with casualties from a nightclub fire so the spillover’s coming here, I’m correct in assuming you’ve worked in the ED before?” He had, and he knew what spillover on a Saturday night meant, it meant patients who were probably fine but needed fluids and somewhere to sleep it off. 

Lofty nodded, “Yeah, a while ago”, trying to play down his experience

“Perfect”, Ms Campbell exclaimed, thrusting a chart into Lofty’s hands, “I need you to run point tonight”.

“But - ”, he began to argue to no avail.

“I already asked Fletch and he agrees with me”, She assured him, “No need to look so worried about it”.

 

Meanwhile it had been a perfectly ordinary day on Keller, a bowel resection at four was the most interesting thing that had happened all day and Dom’s eyes were ready to be glued closed as he slumped behind the nurses station, flicking through a patients notes.

“Alright, what’s the problem?” asked Essie, sliding into the chair next to him.

“Nothing”, he half-lied, “I’ve just been feeling uninspired lately”, he sat, eyes glazed out onto the ward.

“You know”, Essie said, the pitch of her voice just a little too high for Dom’s liking, “It’s okay to miss him”.

“Well now I’ve no idea what you’re talking about”, that one was definitely a lie, and Essie knew it, slamming the notes shut and walking of with indignation did nothing to hide it. Nor did it prevent the stubborn Nurse from following him.

“Really, a certain Nurse, curly black hair, clumsy- ”.

“Okay”, Dom admitted, not wanting her to go any further, “Maybe I miss having him around a little, but will you and Sacha please stop acting likes he’s moved to the other side of the world, he’s only gone downstairs”.

“And that’s why you haven’t seen him since he left?” 

“Whether I do or don’t see Lofty is none of your’s or Sacha’s concern”. He was pretty sure Sacha knew something had happened between himself and Lofty after the blow out with Freddie and it wouldn’t exactly be stretching it to assume that either he’d told Essie or she’d figured it out for herself. Although he did hope they’d both lay off grilling him about Lofty, it didn’t matter what feelings he might or might not have had at one point, after everything that had happened he wasn’t surprised Lofty wanted to get away from him.

 

The night droned on for Dom, but AAU was more hectic than Lofty had ever seen it. The by-product of a nightclub fire was a ward full of people with copious amounts of alcohol rushing through their systems who’d been confronted with the hastily sobering appearance of thick arches of black smoke and a raging inferno. And were now mostly just ill. Unsurprisingly it’s more difficult to treat burns whilst the aforementioned person is regurgitating a nights worth of drinking and Lofty was already through his second pair of scrubs. That was the job though, sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad and often it was just a huge pain in the ass but Lofty wouldn’t change it for the world. One patient that night however, Vincent Ratchet, was driving him insane. The ceiling of the club had fallen in and lots of the victims had been injured by the debris, this guy had a particularly nasty gash that needed cleaning out before it could be sutured and dressed, but he was still riding high on what was definitely a lot of something. Lofty had ordered a tox screen but was still waiting on the results when the time came to treat him. 

“Sir I need you to stay still”, said Lofty, letting out a long sigh, grinding his back teeth together trying to not lash out. All his insistence was no use, in fact it seemed to be counterproductive, the more he tried to calm the guy down the more riled up he got, mumbling away to himself. Everything was a bit of a blur after that, he could remember Ratchet throwing a shove his way that knocked Lofty (who was as clumsy as ever) off his feet long enough to get himself out of bed, Lofty went back in to try and get him back down but…He didn’t see it, neither did anyone else judging by their audible gasps as Lofty’s eyes widened before plummeting to the ground with the rest of his limp, listless body; a blushing shade of red permeating his already sullied scrubs with a warm hand not far behind, pressing down trying to stop the tide of blood forming a bitter lake on the ground around him. Who’d been the first person to his aid he hadn’t the faintest of ideas, everything was a myriad of lights and sounds as he was lifted onto a gurney the choral one, two, three he’d heard a dozen-thousand times now being played for his benefit. All to the backdrop of whirring florescent lights and screaming wheels.

 

Dom regularly pondered how Hospitals were worse than high schools when it came to gossip. A time-honoured way for a student to sustain themselves through a dismal day of cumbersome books, spiteful peers and teachers who wouldn’t know what learning looked like if it hit them in the face with a brick. In Hospitals tattling worked on much the same principle, there was nothing that could give a drained doctor or overworked nurse a little kick of pep like the juiciest intel about Griselda from accounting. And Dom was whatever the opposite of an exception was when it came to this practice. He was cursing himself for complaining about nothing interesting happening, the ward was packed with AAU patients who’d been hastily transferred to make room for the fire victims spilling out of the E.D, so a five minute break in the loos whilst  a brief moment of calm prevailed was exactly what the doctor ordered. When he got back to the ward he could tell something had happened, the nurses were whispering to each other, shaking their heads back and forth, hands pressed against temple’s in disbelief. Then Essie and Sacha were sat at the nurses station, having a spat that soon stopped when Dom appeared. He’d worked with them long enough to know when something was wrong and they were both terrible liars.

“What’s going on? Why does everyone look so miserable all of a sudden?” Dom said, flicking his fingers through his hair.

“Dom”, said Sacha, rising from his seat his mouth hanging open trying to find words that weren’t there. In the end they weren’t needed, before anyone could say anything a gurney burst through the door and Dom would’ve recognised the inhabitant anywhere.

“Lofty?” it was half question half prayer that his eyes were playing a cruel trick on him.

Sacha leapt into action, joining Serena at the side of the rolling bed, “How is he?”

“We’ve stabilised him, but we need to get him into theatre now”, she replied, still speeding down the corridor. 

Dom tried to follow but Sacha gave him a firm, “Dom wait here”, before Essie put a hand on his shoulder to keep him back. 

 

It was excruciating, the waiting, he couldn’t understand how people did this, he wanted to be in there, doing something to help not sat outside vacantly staring into the distance. He kept thinking how he shouldn’t have been there, him and Lofty were barley even friends anymore, but that look Sacha had given him, they both knew what it meant. What seemed like hours passed, people came and went in between shifts and on breaks to see how the surgery was going, even a few people from the E.D showed up, and every time a quiet, “We don’t know yet”, had to escape Dom’s lips another little piece of him broke. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.

“Mr Copeland”, said Hanssen, who was now looming over Dom’s chair.

“Mr Hanssen”, Dom replied, bolting upright, “Sorry I’ll get back to work”.

“That’s quite alright, I’m sure the ward can manage without you for now”, he took a seat next to Dom, the pair sat in silence for the next half an hour, it felt nice to have someone to wait with, someone to anchor him, someone who knew that he didn’t need to talk or explain himself and that all of that could come later.

Eventually Sacha emerged from theatre, the look on his face was unreadable and the worse passed through Dom’s mind. 

“He’s still critical for now, but he’s stable”. Dom let out a trapped sigh of relief, clutching his face in the palm of his hands. 

“He’s being transferred up to ICU”, Sacha explained.

Hanssen relieved himself of his seat, “Well then, I think it is time we let Nurse Chiltern rest and get back to work”. Dom was about to get up when Hanssen said, “Not you Mr. Copeland”. It almost made Dom laugh, was he really that transparent that even Hanssen could tell what Lofty was to him, whatever that even was?

 

When he finally came too Lofty was greeted by the feeling of a sharp pain crashing down his side, which was large enough to cause an involuntary wince as he tried to move about in the bed.

“Lofty?” a groggy voice asked, it took a moment for him to realise that it was Dom curled up in the chair next to him, “You’re awake”.

“Dom?” said Lofty, “What are you doing here?”

“Hanssen said I could stay”, it was a half truth at least, “I should probably be getting back to work. Now that I know you’re okay and all”. Lofty almost stopped him, almost. Instead he just sighed, giving into morbid curiosity and looking down at the impressive wound crawling across his abdomen. He wanted Dom to stay, he wanted to make a joke about everything, he wanted to see him smile.

 

Dom reemerged onto Keller to see everyones face aghast at the fact he was back, Sacha and Essie were practically running up to him.

“How is he?” asked Essie, like she was expecting him to be the bringer of bad news. 

“Fine”, Dom said trying to sound like it was no be deal, “He’s awake now”.

“That’s great”, said Sacha, softly placing his hand on Dom’s arm, “But you know you really don’t have to be here”. Except he did, he kept playing it over and over in his head, Lofty being carted through the ward, blood plastered clothes, an O2 masked strapped to his face. And now that he knew Lofty was okay, if he spent anymore time sat by his bed he might very well go insane. Work, the ward, that was the best place for him, close but not to close. If that happened he was afraid all his feelings might just fall out at once in an oil spill of emotion, and Lofty needed to rest not worry about feelings he might very well no longer reciprocate. So life went on, of course Dom didn’t forget about Lofty, still making sure to visit everyday. A lot of the time Lofty wouldn’t be awake but it was nice just to sit there for a while, watching over him and making sure that everything was okay. He couldn’t help but feel partially responsible, if nothing had ever happened between them then Lofty wouldn’t have even been working on AAU in the first place. Of course he knew that rationally none of this was his fault but there was still this quietly persistent voice murmuring away in the back of his head that he should have known something bad was going to happen.

 

On the other hand, the thought of Dom being responsible hadn’t even crossed Lofty’s mind, as far as he was concerned it was just a tragic accident. The result of one more oddball patient who’d taken too many drugs and had too much to drink, after all his time on the ED it was nothing new, although this was the first time he’d ever ended up in intensive care. He enjoyed Dom’s visits (at least the ones he was awake for) it was nice to talk like old times, Lofty desperately wanted to tell Dom how he still felt, he’d thought that moving to AAU would have made them go away but they didn’t and it was stupid to expect them too. Maybe he’d been too scared, too unsure of himself, he should have fought harder instead he’d done what he always did, run away.

Ignoring his feelings was quickly becoming and unviable option, it had been a week and he was preparing to be transferred down to Keller. Where Dom would be there all day everyday and two people can only make so much evasive small talk before what they really want to talk about boils over. 

“Hey stranger”, it took a minute for Lofty to recognise Robyn’s voice, but as soon as he did a smile leapt across his face. Dom had told him that she’d come to visit him whilst he’d been out but the two old friends had yet to speak. 

“Hey”, Lofty replied, shifting himself upright in bed. The two spent a while catching up, trading stories, finding out everything that had been going on in the ED since he’d left.

“So you’re enjoying it, work I mean?” asked Robyn, shuffling her chair a little bit closer to the bed.

“Yeah, it’s good”.

“Well you must be popular, that Dom guys been up here everyday”, said Robyn.

“What?” Lofty couldn’t believe it, he knew Dom had been visiting him, but he’d only seen him a few times.

“He stayed all night when it first happened, I figured you too must have been close”, Robyn had no idea what she was saying, everything was still so out of context for her.

“Something like that”, Lofty replied.

“What does that mean”, she was visibly confused now, still not having enough pieces to make sense of everything.

He pondered whether or not to tell her, he didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t but Dom hadn’t been entirely wrong, things were still so fresh and new and he hadn’t quite figured it all out yet, “I slept with him”, he finally said.

“Oh”, she said, “I didn’t know you were - ”.

“It’s a long story”, he explained, not wanting to get into details, “and now everything’s just - ”.

“Complicated?”

“Yeah”.

“Do you like him?” 

“Yeah”, he repeated timidly, that had never been the problem.

“Then what have you got to loose”. They both knew she was telling him to suck it up and tell him, and she was right. It wasn’t like him and Dom had any kind of meaningful friendship left to protect, the worse that could happen is everything staying the same.

 

The ward was as busy as ever when Dom arrived, he hadn’t been at work when Lofty’d been transferred up so he was already settled into the ward when his shift started. All he wanted to do was tell him how he felt, but everything was so complicated and complicated was everything he was terrified of because that’s precisely what Isaac had been. He had come with ready made baggage and brought with him a million different issues even before it had all gone so horribly wrong. Not that he thought that Lofty would ever hurt him, no Dom was fairly certain Lofty would apologise to a fly for accidentally stepping on it. But he was scared that it would go wrong in a different way, what if Lofty didn’t feel as much as he did, or he got bored, or realise that he didn’t really like him. That’s what he’d liked about Freddie, it was just simple fun, but the truth was Dom was tired of ‘just’. He realised that the reason he’d gone for Freddie was because he wasn’t scared of losing him because even when it happened he wouldn’t have really cared. He wanted someone he was afraid of loosing even if it hurt every once in a while, he’d spent too much time being afraid of his own fear.

 

Waiting to see if Dom came over to talk to him was painful, more painful than the stab wound forming into what Lofty was sure would be an ugly scar. Eventually after what seemed like hours the young doctor strolled up to him, and to his surprise drew the curtain around the bed.

“Lofty we need to talk”, he tolled him, making sure to take up his all too familiar seat.

“Yeah”, Lofty agreed, not sure what else to say. The pair sat in silence for a while, clearly Dom was as unsure of himself as Lofty which was oddly comforting for both men. They stayed like that until they both started making breathy laughing sounds aware of how crazy it was.

“Look at us”, said Dom with his head resting back in the chair, “How’d we make such a mess”.

“I know right”. Dom was looking right at him and Lofty couldn’t help but bight his lip slightly, “Dom”.

“No let me”, if he didn’t get it out there and then he wasn’t sure he ever would, “Lofty you are kind and generous and since we met you’ve been nothing but brilliant and I’ve well not been that. I was cruel and dismissive and I should have listened to you”, Dom was rambling but he didn’t care because this was it, this was a million tiny different emotions from a hundred different days all boiling over at once, “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry”.

“You’re welcome”, Lofty said immediately realising his mistake, “Ehh, I mean, apology accepted, as far as apologies go I’d say that one was pretty good”, he held out his hand and smiled in such a way that Dom could have drowned in it. Their hands slowly weaved together as if they were holding each other up above the water. As soon as they touched that was it, neither of them could wait any longer, the two men pulled each other in for a kiss that was full of anguish and desire, but at the same time sent waves of warmth rushing through them. It was perhaps longer than it should have been given where they were,  only a thin curtain separating them from everyone they knew. Dom knew he should really get back to work, but under the circumstances he figured it could wait a minute.


End file.
